


Traditions

by I May Age Regress (shnuffeluv)



Series: Gibbs' Family [70]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Age Play, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Gen, Movie Night, Non-Sexual Age Play, Traditions, also! we're at part 75!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 06:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17156831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/I%20May%20Age%20Regress
Summary: Some Christmas fluff in theGibbs' Familyuniverse, circa 2006.Hope all of you have had Happy Holidays!





	Traditions

It was before Christmas dinner but after everyone had arrived at Ducky's house that Ziva asked the fated question. "Why do you all have set traditions for how you celebrate Christmas?"

Abby looked over from where she had been discussing records with Timmy and tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean," Ziva huffed as she looked for the words to explain what she was thinking. English was still not her strongest language, and it irritated her. "You all celebrated Christmas the same way last year. With the gifts and the wearing of special pajamas and the sweaters and Gibbs having a special breakfast for the boys. Why did you repeat it?"

Timmy shrugged as he joined the conversation. "I dunno. The breakfast is something my family did when I was little, and I know Tony's did that too. You found the sweaters last year, and we wanted to help you feel included so we helped you pick them out this year, too. It's just...special things that we don't normally get to do, and Christmas is a good time to do them, I guess."

Tony and Jimmy looked over from their blocks. "Also different families have different traditions, and when we come together, we get to see all those different traditions and pick the best ones to continue!" Tony chimed in.

"Well, then, what are some of your favorite traditions?" Ziva asked. "Maybe I will understand if I get to hear them."

Tony's hand shot into the air and he said, "I have one! The reason we have special PJ's for Christmas comes from when I was little! I'd get a new pair of PJ's every Christmas Eve when Mom was alive and I'd get to wear them Christmas morning! They were always Christmas themed, like a snowman, or a reindeer, and I think one time there was even an elf PJ set? But yeah! I told Papa that the year Timmy came around and he got us all special Christmas PJ's that we can wear now! 'Cause we don't grow anymore we don't need new ones every year."

"Really?" Timmy asked. "That's kinda cool! I wouldn't get new PJ's, I'd just wear my favorite ones to help me feel extra cozy. Now my Christmas ones are my favorite ones."

"What was one of your traditions, Timmy?" Abby asked.

Timmy shrugged and squirmed where he sat. "Christmas was always when I'd get to see lots and lots of my family. Sometimes I'd get to dress up in really weird costumes around my grandparents' house. Once I got into my grandparents' closet and found a pair of red pumps. I refused to take them off," he giggled. "From that day on, I'd wear something silly on Christmas for our family photos."

"I lived in Louisiana as a kid," Abby said. "So we  _never_  had a white Christmas...outside, at least. My parents would always buy some packing peanuts for me and Luca to play with. It was snow, without the cold!"

Ziva smiled at the stories, before spying Jimmy, watching them with some small bit of sadness. "Do you have any Christmas traditions, Jimmy?" she asked.

"I wasn't...I wasn't adopted till I was ten," he said softly. "So I didn't really have any as a kid."

"What kinds of stuff did you do once you were adopted?" Timmy asked. "Traditions don't hafta start when you're a kid, you know!"

Jimmy smiled. "My family...we'd do the ugly sweater thing. Every year, we'd compete for the ugliest sweater between me, my parents, and all my new cousins and grandparents. My first Christmas with them, I won the contest with a sweater complete with real Christmas lights." He laughed. "I never won again, but that's okay. I was proud of winning that one day."

Ziva hummed. "I suppose your traditions are a way of staying close with your family and friends, then, yes?"

"Kinda," Tony said. "I think it's also...lots changes. You know? And having something stay the same after all that...it's..."

"Reassuring," Timmy finished. "Some things will never change."

Ziva nodded. She didn't fully understand, because things were always changing for her. She rarely stayed in one place for more than a year. Every day she was expecting to be called back to Israel, back to her father. And she hated that thought. The idea that there would always be something there for her, if needed, was almost unfathomable. But then she remembered how everyone here treated her. Like a real family, not like the one she had grown up with. People who cared about her, cared  _for_  her, wanted to see her okay, even if that meant she didn't do everything they did. And she thought that if that became a tradition, a steady rock in her life, it would take her world ending to make her leave it.

"Dinner's ready," Gibbs announced from the doorway.

The kids all leapt to their feet and rushed to the dining room, but Ziva and Gibbs went a little slower. "Enjoying the day off?" Gibbs asked.

"The kids certainly have some...interesting traditions," Ziva said. "I do not fully understand them."

Gibbs laughed. "You know, I'm not sure I do either. But it makes them happy, so I won't complain."

Ziva smiled. "You are a good man, Gibbs. And I am glad you're back in time for Christmas. For their sakes."

"Truth be told, it might have killed me if I came back and realized I missed Christmas with the kids," Gibbs whispered, eyes darting back and forth. "Don't tell anyone I said that, though."

Ziva chuckled and mimed locking her lips together. While she wasn't one of Gibbs' kids, she appreciated this softer side of him as well. She found she liked when he would joke around and play with the boys. It was nice. It was sweet. It was...family.

She would never understand how everyone here had chosen to invite her in, despite her not being like the rest of them.

Gibbs and Ziva took seats at the dinner table, Abby said grace, and they all began to eat. Timmy was humming Christmas songs still under his breath, but he was smiling, and swinging his legs, so it didn't look like he was anxiously stimming. Tony shook his head. "You realize if you're still doing that tomorrow at work I'm going to gift wrap your entire desk, right down to your stapler," he said.

"That's tomorrow," Timmy said, grinning wide. "More specifically, tomorrow  _at work_."

"Yeah, but it would help you practice not humming if you stopped  _now_ ," Tony grumbled.

"Not happening," Timmy giggled, taking a big bite of Ducky's roast beef.

"Boys," Gibbs warned, and both of them quieted.

Ziva was still occasionally taken aback at how Gibbs could handle two unruly boys. But then again, Ducky was able to manage a toddler and a young girl, so maybe there was just a secret that older men had when it came to raising children.

Jimmy offered up the conversation topic of specifically  _how_  Santa could get to everyone's houses in a single night, which sparked a very heated debate on whether or not magic was involved, beyond the flying reindeer. "I mean, think about it this way," Timmy said. "If there's all sorts of different Santa's at the malls, and on the sides of the street with those buckets,  _and_  one at the North Pole, couldn't that mean there's an entire network of Santas that work together to deliver toys? Because one man couldn't do that all in one night."

"I still say that Santa uses magic to deliver all the toys," Abby said firmly.

"But he leaves us notes every Christmas about the cookies and milk!" Tony protested. "How could he do that if he only used magic to deliver the toys?"

"The time-turner?" Jimmy offered. "From...from the Harry Potter book? He could have something like that!"

Abby turned to Jimmy, and gave him a pleased high-five. " _Thank_  you, Jimmy!" she said with a pointed look at Timmy.

Timmy stuck out his tongue and Abby mirrored the action. Gibbs just shook his head and said, "You two are going to be the death of each other."

"Yeah," Timmy said. "So?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Just making an observation, kid."

Timmy shrugged and went back to eating. Ziva looked between them all and after she took a bite of the mashed potatoes she had on her plate, added her input to the discussion. "I think that both of you have very compelling theories. But have you considered...you may both be right? I mean, there's a lot of ground for each Santa to cover, even if they only work around where their local malls are."

Everyone at the table stared at her a moment before responding enthusiastically to the suggestion, and proposing even more theories that kept the ball rolling and the dinner conversation lively, and Ziva leaned back, pleased with herself. Gibbs gave her a smile, and Ducky looked her over in that subtle show of approval she enjoyed receiving from a hard job completed.

Dinner continued, and when they finished, Ducky helped serve pie and ice cream as everyone got situated in the living room for a movie marathon, shown on a sheet from a projector. Tony got it for Ducky from a guy who knew a guy a while back. Ziva settled onto the couch and watched the kids pay rapt attention to the movie as it began to play. If Ziva had to guess, she would say that it had to be  _It's A Wonderful Life_. It was enjoyable enough, she supposed, but the conversation before dinner left her thinking. She wanted to create her own traditions for Christmas, in her own way. They may not be religious, or related to giving gifts, but she supposed she could try to do something with her family.

She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to her father:  _I hope you are doing well. Thinking of you._

Without saying so much as a word, she slipped it back into her pocket. While she could talk to her father, and any other family she so chose over the course of the next couple of days, she was also focused on spending time with her second family as well. Because that's what this was. Her team was more a family to her than her actual family had ever been, and they deserved her attention as well.

When the first movie ended, Ducky put on  _Rudolph_ _the Red-Nosed Reindeer_  and Ziva inwardly prepared herself for her least-favorite holiday movie. Gibbs nudged her and pointed in the general direction of the kitchen, and she followed him out to find Ducky already preparing tea for the three of them. "The kids may like that movie, but I can't stand it either," Gibbs laughed.

"I can only tolerate so much, as well, and I need my energy to help the younger ones to bed tonight," Ducky said. "We won't force you to sit through anything that we ourselves won't."

"Thank you," Ziva said, taking the tea with a grateful smile. She stared at the mug in her hands. "I find it interesting, how hospitality in America is shown. You put on the tea or the coffee, and you make sure that everyone has enough to eat, and that no one goes home without some food with them."

Gibbs shrugged. "Yeah, well, we want to make sure that everyone feels welcome. Whether you're eight or eighty, doesn't really matter. Everyone can have something to drink, something to eat while they stay over." He sighed. "Christmas used to hurt a lot more. The kids have helped with that. Having someone be with you when everyone is looking for hospitality is..."

"Reassuring, maybe?" Ziva offered.

"Let's go with that," Gibbs said with a smirk.

Ziva chuckled and the three talked longer, throughout the rest of the movie. Once they could hear the kids debating about what should be put on next, they pulled up  _Home Alone_  and everyone settled in to watch, Jimmy shuffling closer to Abby when the crooks arrived and Tony and Timmy cheering on the kid in all his pranks. Thankfully, none of the kids were too scared, because they had each other nearby.

As the movie continued, the cheers became less frequent, if only because everyone was growing increasingly tired. Gibbs and Ducky were already asleep next to her, and Abby was resting against Ducky's legs. Timmy was out cold on the floor as they reached the final half-hour of the movie. Ziva just leaned back and smiled. Her second family may have some strange traditions, but she was happy to be a part of them. Maybe next year she'd text her father again, and start some traditions of her own.

**Author's Note:**

> Hard to believe another year has come and gone, and so much has happened this year that it's kinda unbelievable. I hope all of you who celebrate Christmas or Yule or Hanukkah or any other winter holiday had a good one, and those of you who don't had a good day anyway! Love you all, see you in 2019!


End file.
